3/30/2009 – Deer Darting

I headed out to hunt a rare NNW wind at my study site to try and dart a young deer to mark with ear tags and freeze branding.

Hung over 4 weeks ago, I finally got to sit in a loc-on that I knew would produce given the right wind. At 8:05, I was proven right. 4 deer – 2 does and 2 doe fawns – approached to within 15 yards. Money.

This little doe probably didn’t weigh over 45 pounds, but she got some really nice jewelry out of the ordeal.

While I was waiting for her to wake up from the deep sleep, I took a 30-minute walk and found a shed from last year and my first fresh one of the year at the Alabama study site. Look carefully and you can see the old one’s tines sticking up to the left of the dark trunked tree in the left half of the picture.

Close-ups

The freshie had some mulie genetics going on.

This old antler looks ginormous, but it really wasn’t very big at all. Probably only a 110″ deer or so.

By the time I got back to “sleepy head”, she was just getting her legs underneath her. A good day to be at work!